# Series (Page 106)
Six Days you Shall Labour
In my youth, desperate for money, I went to work at a steel mill. It was heavily unionised. I left as soon as I found another job. In the few short weeks that I worked there I received a lot of money, despite going on strike at least twice (once was over a ‘demarcation dispute—a manager secured something on a trailer with a rope; so they ‘pulled the pin.’) I stood in a couple of union meetings that made my…
Five Card Stud—No thanks!
If ever we enjoyed a TV Western it was “Alias Smith and Jones.” Hannibal Heyes and Jedediah “Kid” Curry were the coolest guys on television. It was Hannibal Hayes who first introduced me to Five Card Stud. Being so young it was no big deal to lose countless matchsticks to my siblings. But for the adult gambling can easily become a habit that is hard to shake. Even before I was a Christian, I never really gambled much. I had…
Four Lepers—What have we got to lose?
A pleasant irony is found in the story of the Four Lepers of 2 Kings 7. Unwelcome in their own besieged and starving city they decided to try their luck with the enemy-what did they have to lose? Thus, they wandered into a massive freshly abandoned camp. Taking advantage of the situation, they feasted on the food and plundered the valuables. Then their religion kicked in. They admitted to each other: “We are not doing right. This is a day of…
Three Crosses—The Saviour, the penitent, and the sinner.
Heaven. All those tricky questions finally answered. ‘Did Solomon reject the idols of his wives?” “Did Simon the sorcerer make it?’ and ‘What’s it like to preach a nine-word sermon, convert 120,000 people, and be remembered for everything else but that?’ I have a question for the thief on the cross. But I’ll get to that soon. First, let me tell you about thieves I have known. Thieves, the most selfish of men. As expert in justifying their crimes as they…
Two Brothers
Cain and Abel abide as the consummate ‘Good son—Bad son’ story. Two boys raised in the same environment who turn out so differently. Abel’s sacrifice accepted by God; Cain’s rejected. What was wrong with Cain’s sacrifice? Tragically, the specific answer to that question is one that lies beneath the dirt with its victim. The biggest clue lies in Cain’s attitude in the face of God’s warning. His anger had gotten the better of him. He was bent on avenging himself, because…
One God
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). This, the first of the Ten Commandments, sets the tone for the other nine. Hard on its heels, the Second Commandment, forbids the worship of idols, and He adds: “For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” (Ex20:5). God will not abide being relegated to first equal or to a close second. Its Him and nothing else. All other gods are man-made ‘nothings’ (1Cor.8:4). You will agree that…
Day 66 The Lock-Down. Bringing Hope to Confined Circumstances
“Route 66” In 1998 I found myself in South West Missouri on a lonely rural road. GPS was unknown to me, so I had to get out of my borrowed car and check maps and find signs. Much to my surprise I looked up to see the sign ‘Route 66.’ Famous among those in the know, for its impact on the westward flow of Americans, and immortalized in songs and books alike, I felt that I was standing on something…
Day 65 The Lock-Down. Bringing Hope to Confined CircumstanceS
“Enemy Snapshots.” Social media has a way of bringing your long-forgotten past into the present. Old photos appearing on Facebook of you (usually in group pictures) causing you to say out loud, “That’s not how I used to look!”? It’s the thought that everybody may frame that image as the total you of yesteryear is what gets you. Judging character by first impressions is an art-form that many claim to have perfected. “I’ve never been wrong, they brag.” The first…
Day 64 The Lock-Down. Bringing Hope to Confined Circumstances
“A pillar in the temple of My God.” When faith and life exist on two different tracks, both are heading for a train wreck. It’s the faith-integrated life that characterizes the men and women who are the pillars in our congregations. These are the permanent fixtures that uphold and keep us together. As the ‘fly by nighters’ come and go, leaving their trails of destruction strewn across the landscapes of our congregations, these brothers and sisters clean up and keep…
Day 63 The Lock-Down. Bringing Hope to Confined Circumstances
‘On the other side of the sword.’ For many of us the transition into church life was gradual. Non-Christian friends and family may have reacted respectably but had their silent reservations. Some may have hoped that we might ‘get over it,’ some taking polite interest, some ignoring us, and some may have also become Christians. It is those with convictions contrary to the ones that we have converted to who will react adversely. Emotions can run high as irreconcilable differences…